Right, first of all, ye know how much I ramble, and I have 18 pictures ready to go. You might want to go make coffee. Click the pictures for a closer look if you're as nosey as I am.
A few weeks ago, I reached my patience limit with my old storage unit. It was crammed with polish and it took me ages to find anything. Proof? Here:
After debating for a long time whether or not to make the trip to IKEA for a Helmer, I saw this on the Littlewoods website. Of COURSE it's on sale now, when I paid stupid money for it, AAAAGH! Sickened.
Anyway, here it is, it's massive and it came with wheels but I didn't bother with them, I see no reason to be lugging a giant storage unit around.
What won me over were the two little drawers on the top, they're perfect for nail art stuff and non-polish things. Here's drawer number one:
Nail tips, brushes, skewers, acrylic paints, acrylic nail set (with a liquid that should be banished to the seventh level of hell where it belongs, smell of it - my son calls it the liquid of death) and my little embellishment case (bought from Cork Art Supplies along with the acrylic paint & brushes). Here's a look at the case:
I use it for glitters, glequins, tape, tip guides, microbeads, eyes (don't ask), bows, tips for the practice finger, etc. I love the little bottles, I picked some glitter ones up on eBay a while back and I was sent some amazing bar glitters & mixed glitters from the lovely Jenna in a recent swap, which I'll post about soon.
Here's the second little drawer:
This one has my nail art pens, files, straws & orange sticks, nail stickers, embellishment wheels, stamping plates & stamper, old bank card for scraper, pre-cut foil & pads, nail wraps, broadway nails, velvet powder, sponges, toe separators (which I never use, the feeling of my toes being stretched makes me want to heave) and cuticle gel.
Now for the polish - some polishes (like Essence Colour & Go or Revlon) are easily recognisable by the top of their caps. Others are not (hello Catrice). So, I divided all my polish up by brand, then labelled them all starting with the number one. As I was labelling, I got some card, punched holes in the sides, put some ribbon through (so I can add more pages) and made a swatch book.
This took an obscene amount of time and I was praying that nobody would come in and see it - one of himself's sisters was once shocked by the amount of nail polish I owned and there were only 11 on the table - I fear I would be sectioned if anyone saw them all laid out. Wanna see some pages?
It's already made life so much easier, when I fancy a particular colour now I can just have a look at my swatches and then find the number! I label & swatch each new polish as I get it. Here's big drawer one:
It started off as mostly Essence, OPI minis, Tony Moly, Stargazer & other randoms but to be honest every drawer is a bit of a mish-mash. Big drawer two:
This one has Barry M, Nicole by OPI, Rimmel, Revlon, Angelica, & more randoms. Big Drawer three:
Catrice, Polish remover, and basically anything I've recently bought or received in a swap. The other three drawers are for skin stuff and makeup that I don't use on a daily basis (I have a little make-up bag for my everyday stuff).
The second has lipstick, lip pencils, lipbalm (that giant lollipop thing is a Chupa Chups lipgloss probably aimed at children, but hey) and brushes, primer, eyeliner.
The last one has foundation, eyeshadow, palettes, false lashes, bronzer, blusher, mascara.
While I was at it, I said I'd take a couple more storage pictures - here's earring/perfume storage and my old polish tower which now houses the empty OPI mini boxes (yes, I kept them, I'm weird), hair rollers, moisturizer, bracelets, big jewellery.
Good job himself doesn't have much stuff, isn't it? That little box on top of the Glamour magazines was from a Christmas present, it contained 6 polishes from Fearne Cotton's collection for Boots. I use it to store my rings & some chains and apparently a dice, no idea why that's in there.
And lastly, is limbo, or the box that I throw stuff into when I find it in places it shouldn't be. This is just basically a big box of stuff that I should really organise but can't be bothered to:
And there you have it. How I store my polish and other things. Go have a lie down, you deserve it for getting to the end.
I love the swatch book idea! Might copy that some time soon :p
ReplyDeleteI used to swatch mine on paper when I was little, it's so handy to keep track! x
DeleteOh I am so jealous of your collection! I've just sent a link to the other half so he can see that my collection is actually minuscule. Just a few teensie glossyboxes full.
ReplyDeleteThe swatch book is a great idea, definitely a stealer!
Haha I do that! I find massive collections on youtube and make P watch them. He think's I'm normal in comparison, muahahaha :)
DeleteOh I love posts like this. I'm so nosy. I have to agree, the swatch book is a great idea! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm so nosy too! The swatch book is really handy, it took so long but it's worth it! x
DeleteHahahaha! I have a limbo drawer, too! How do we end up with so many things that just don't have a place, lol.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea! I seem to find random nail things and just throw them in there, one day I'll sort it :)
DeleteHoly smokes. My collection is tiny, TINY compared to yours...
ReplyDeleteNo! Don't say things like that, I bet you have a huge secret collection of things! Say you do! :)x
DeleteLollll you make me feel normal, my storage is similar, but kudos to you for the swatch book, i dont think i would have the patience, well done!
ReplyDeleteIt was a total nightmare to organise them all but I just kept tellin myself I'd only have to do it once, it's really helpful! x
Deletewow wow wow...loving someone who has a collection like mine!!!! makes me feel a bot more sane....i think i am going to try your swatch book idea!! xxxx
ReplyDeleteYay!!! Do, it's such a great help xx
DeleteWhat a fantastic collection and storage system! Loving your swatch book! And I totally get you with not wanting non polish addict people to know just how many you have. I once had gotten some nail mail about 8-10 bottles and they were just sitting on the table. People called to the house and saw it and were like you have loads of polish! Yeah......that's all I have. xx
ReplyDeleteHahaha! That made me burst out laughing, I know that EXACT feeling!! xx
DeleteLove this storage idea! I've been trying to devise a good storage option for a while now, mine are in a complete state of disarray! Love the swatch book idea :) for mine I bought a LOT of nail wheels and labelled the wheels with a number, and wrote down the order of polishes on each wheel in a little notebook :D Sooo much easier than trying to find a certain colour that you know you have something similar but you aren't sure what it is haha. I love the cabinet, must find myself something similar! xx
ReplyDeleteAhh I wanted to do the nail wheel thing too but I got excited and swatched them all randomly and then my son broke them all off so he could try them in my pratice finger.... :)x
DeleteI love your swatch book!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stef! x
DeleteWow, what a great collection! Love your storage and swatch book idea! My storage looks like in you first picture, I have to do something soon, because I am sure that with the time I will buy more polishes and I need to order them properly, if I want to find each of them :)
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what happened to me, the bigger boxes should do me for a while! x
DeleteI like the swatch book idea, but I prefer to have them all out on display. That said I'm loving the double storage thing you have!
ReplyDeleteIf I lived on my own I would have them on the walls :) I wanted a big display rack but space is an awful issue here, this fits behind the door so was handy! x
DeleteWow, I'm so jealous of that huge collection! Your swatch book is such an amazing idea, I think once I've got a bigger collection I'll do something like that too :) x
ReplyDeleteIt's really helpful, you should! x
DeleteThat is AMAZING! the swatch idea is genius!
ReplyDeleteIt satisfied my polish OCD and my list addiction, win :)x
DeleteGreat stash! I like the idea with your little polish book, I have something similar but all the polishes are on one paper and when I started I didn't write the names...so it is not very helpful.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Ah at least you can see the colours so you know what shades you have? I kept forgetting I had certain polishes x
DeleteBrilliant storage, and the swatch book idea is just amazing; well done! I love it :)
ReplyDeleteAw thank you x
DeleteHoly Hell! that's a lot of nail polish!
ReplyDeleteI need to show my husband your blog so he understand i have a small addiction! ;)
Txx
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